Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Gun ownership in Canada

Canada has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world. There are almost as many rifles per capita in Canada as in the United States. The gun ownership rate in Canada is about 29% of households; ownership rates are higher in the West and the North. Similarly, rural gun ownership rates are higher than urban rates.

16 comments:

Anonymous
said...

It's time to focus on the perpetrators. Focus on the shooters who committed the crime. Get them off of the street and behind bars. Get the black market dealers and the smugglers. Leave law abiding citizens alone.

"Law abiding citizens", are generally the men who, when they see their marriage is ending, and the divorce proceeding dividing up the property, start shooting. Often, the ones dead are the RCMP. At least in rural Canada.

Interesting contradiction, too -- if the "law-abiding citizen" actually did abide by all laws without complaint, he or she would not have objected to registering guns, or even having them confiscated, if that were the law. Instead, these people claim the criminal's "right" to pick and choose what laws they will obey. Ironic.

The death of the long gun registry wasn't solely about the backlash from gun owners. It was caused by the incompetence of the government that introduced the lgr. The data in the LGR is so incomplete that it is currently useless.

Some commentators are still in denial. They are trying to make this about rural gun owners when the problem here is clearly black gangs in cities. They are displaying the white Liberal guilt again that created this mess in the first place.

"if the "law-abiding citizen" actually did abide by all laws without complaint, he or she would not have objected to registering guns, or even having them confiscated, if that were the law. Instead, these people claim the criminal's "right" to pick and choose what laws they will obey. Ironic.

I think you mean the citizen's right to object to unjust laws. Abiding by the law does not mean you cannot criticize it or fight against it. How you missed that in your occupy blank protest committee meting is baffling.

Well if Reform MPs and special interest groups hadn't been doing everything they could to sabotage the program, the LGR would have more complete data.

The initial introduction of the LGR was incredibly incompetent though. At minimum, it shouldn't have been introduced until the problems had been worked out (that resulted in years of delays before firearms absolutely had to be registered and they really meant it for sure this time we promise).

But CGI made piles of money from cost overruns in setting up a simple gun registry, so I suppose some people are happy. The current (Conservative-appointed) Governor General was CGI's Lead Director around that time.

... and yet we are surprised when a gun battle erupts in the Eaton Centre or at a party in Scarborough.

That would be highest rates of *legal* gun ownership, not illegal handguns in the hands of criminals. These are two entirely different matters, although they are often linked in a shamelessly dishonest attempt to score political points.

"Law abiding citizens", are generally the men who, when they see their marriage is ending, and the divorce proceeding dividing up the property, start shooting. Often, the ones dead are the RCMP. At least in rural Canada.

Riiiiight. That's why all those millions of legitimate gun owners are filling up our prisons, then?

"... and yet we are surprised when a gun battle erupts in the Eaton Centre or at a party in Scarborough.

That's a really great point! We have one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world and we suffer so little "gun violence" that we are genuinely surprised when it happens. So gun ownership isn't related to gun violence. Thank you Stephen Downes for makings such a cogent argument for the continued relaxation of gun laws.

Actually, Rat, if you graph 'rate of gun ownership' versus 'gun deaths' for different countries, you get an almost perfectly straight line. The U.S. is in the top right hand corner, with a lot of both. Canada sits at about 25 percent of the gun ownership and 25 percent of the gun crimes, compared to the U.S. Switzerland sits on the line as well. And countries with lower gun ownership sit in the lower left, with low levels of gun deaths.

When you look at the actual numbers, the conclusion is inescapable. Gun deaths rise with gun ownership. Period.

When you look at the actual numbers, the conclusion is inescapable. Gun deaths rise with gun ownership. Period.

That's nice. Where do Jamaica, Mexico and other third-world countries sit on your 'graph', then? All those countries where gun ownership is all but illegal for the average citizen, but the murder rates are astronomical?

(and who exactly provided such numbers, anyway? Please tell me it wasn't a gun-control site, because those people are proven liars...)

But without even knowing your source, I can shoot done your argument just by analyzing the words you oh-so-carefully chose to use. Since your cherry-picked numbers include *suicides*, they are worthless. Sorry to burst your bubble, but suicide rates have been proven to be unaffected by the presence or absence of firearms (another method is substituted when guns aren't available).

You want to prevent deaths? Ban cars. To use your logic: no cars = no car deaths. And boats. And alcohol. And (etc, etc)...

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